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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Android 4.4

Android has had a long run of softwares for their mobile technologies. All of these are also named after a good food, Gingerbread, Jelly Bean, and Froyo to name a few. Now Google has a new operating system on the horizon, 4.4 Kit Kat. I'm excited because I am getting a new Android within the next two weeks and I'll be able to fully experience it. This new software promises a set of great features that will help Android users and create a more easy to use and advanced user experience. Here I will outline a few of the key features of Kit Kat and what that could mean for Android users who upgrade.

To start off, just a fun fact: Neither company is actually getting any money from the other. The partnership between Google and Kit Kat was made in the hope that the collective publicity campaigns of both companies would bring in revenue for each partner equally. Anyway, the features in Kit Kat promise to be pretty cool. For one, they are attempting to create a more unified Android. Phones now often have slightly different operating systems based on the company, provider, and how much you pay for the phone. Like Apple's iOS, Android is attempting to make every Android model have the same basic software. This change will also encompass older mobile devices, a problem that Android users have experienced. Often times, a mobile device would be obsolete pretty quickly because of the rigid requirements for a software upgrade.

The "prettiness" of the software will also be improved. For example, the motions of changing screens, opening apps, opening your apps list, etc. will be done more seamlessly. Kit Kat is also making a more efficient software that will help battery life increase. This combined with better processors are supposed to lead to battery life that will last for multiple days. That would be pretty cool, because you could essentially charge your phone overnight one night and use it for the next few days. Not to mention the time saved that you would have spent charging it at an airport, or being antisocial because you're standing by a wall charging your phone during a social event.

Of course you also have the continual improvements of less bugs and greater security features and more customization options and all that good stuff. Android 4.4 Kit Kat is a pretty big step for Android, both in the actual software and with the partnership it has with Kit Kat, which is sure to spread Google's influence even more throughout the technology market. Especially when you compare it to the early softwares (1.5 Cupcake for example) 4.4 is a huge marker of the success Google has encountered while they've had their operating system out. I think this is just one more step of a company that continues to surprise and amaze me, and I look forward to seeing the future of Google.